FringeReview Scotland 2024
Trick of The Eye
YDance Horizons
Genre: Dance, Dance and Movement Theatre
Venue: Tramway Theatre
Festival: FringeReview Scotland
Low Down
Something that entices you in and then delivers a wee twist. Choreographed with precision and the ability to respect the abilities onstage. This flows and ebbs with theatre arts poised to illuminate and focus us on the work and more importantly, the message.
Review
Making dance accessible to people is always part of the focus of Ydance’s work, however what raises it up from the mundane is the diversity and approach onstage. The range of people who believe that this place is a natural environment for them is one thing, but the range of abilities and the key skill of taking the movement abilities and moulding them into a choreographed piece is a massive task.
Here, once more, chorographer Aimee Freel is credited but so too are the dancers. Throughout this the incredible collective feeling is one of skilled enjoyment. Where there is a misstep, or something is not quite in synch with something else there is simply an artistic freedom which draws your eye to the exuberance on show. There is no trickery here, you feel guided.
At times I was drawn into watching a particular dancer because their fluidity captured my attention. My opportunity to do that comes from the ensemble technique on display. At no times was I concerned that someone might not quite manage the dance piece or would be out of place so could relax and enjoy individual movement whilst really loving the holistic experience.
The music was well matched and again there was a flow to the movement captured by the choreography which spoke of knowing your limitations, getting to them and then pushing that wee bit further. Theatre Arts included lighting which was an additional metaphor to the idea of seeing things and how we may be perceived which was added to by the words.
I had written down that not all performance with disabled dancers needs to be about disability and then the words told me to rethink things. I didn’t. This was partly because I was enjoying the artistic expression onstage but also because it added to the message. That we were enlisted into a common space to enjoy art which was delivered by YDance’s clever group is enhanced by the message. I still think that accessibly dance does not always need to be about accessibility, but then again if there was more of it, there would be less need to go on about it.
